Illinois Falls to Purdue

Saturday, October 3

Champaign, Ill.

3:15 PM CT

University of Illinois

2-3 , 0-2

Purdue

2-3 , 1-1

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
Purdue	3	10	3	8	24
Illinois	0	7	0	10	17

Varsity Network

October 3, 2026 | Football

Box Score Photo Gallery

RECAP

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Illinois lost to Purdue (2-3, 1-1 Big Ten), 24-17, at Gies Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Collin Dixon caught his eighth touchdown of the season in the second quarter while Ismael Kante led the team in tackles with 10.

The Illini (2-3, 0-2 Big Ten) head to East Lansing, Michigan, next Saturday (Oct. 10) to take on Michigan State. Kickoff is schedule for 2:30 p.m. CT on FS1.

PRESS CONFERENCE

POSTGAME NOTES

Illinois sold out its Homecoming game in back-to-back years for the first time since 2008-09.
Collin Dixon caught 10 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown, also had one carry for 15 yards.
- Recorded his eighth receiving TD of the season and the 13th of his career.
- Extended his Illinois single-season Gies Memorial Stadium record
- Moved into a six-way tie for sixth on the Illini's single-season list
- Took over eighth on the Illini's career receiving TDs list
Katin Houser completed 21 passes for 225 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. He also carried the ball eight times for 42 yards.
- His 42 yards rushing are a season high.
Ismael Kante made 10 tackles and 1.5 TFLs.
- Recorded a career-high 10 total tackles, including seven solo stops, and a season-most 1.5 tackles for loss.
Ethan Moczulski went 1-for-2 on field goals and made both extra points.
- Hit a 54-yard field goal, the longest make in the Big Ten this season
- Third-career FG of 50+ yards.

Quotes

Head Coach Bret Bielema

Opening Statement:
"Obviously, extremely disappointed. I think this week was a very unique week in all my years of doing this, just kind of handling everything from last Sunday to where we are. I really like the way our guys responded. I like the way they prepared. I know today's outcome wasn't what we wanted, but I do think our guys will grow and learn. It's just been one of those years, man. Going back to last spring and fall camp, it just seems like we're a group that really has to learn things the hard way. We'll take the moment and grow out of this.'

'I give a lot of credit to Purdue. Obviously, they executed. I looked at the stat line just when I got done with the game and saw the yardage and the number of plays were almost equal, but obviously, bottom line, they created big plays when they had to and made them. We had some opportunities and didn't make them. I think for us, there's got to be huge learning moments in these end-of-half, end-of-game scenarios. I thought our offense finally executed there at the end of the half, even though it wasn't what we wanted to get on the board.'

'Even though in the fourth quarter it was a two-score game, I thought when we hit that field goal, we'd be able to navigate and get ourselves back. Even when they scored a touchdown to make it a two-score game, we had three and a half minutes and three timeouts. We don't need to throw a ball down the middle of the field there in desperation. So it'll be a really good learning moment for Katin and our offense as well. I'm super excited about that. Those guys compete their tails off.'

'Collin Dixon, I can't say enough about him. Obviously, it was the first time we've had our starting lineup back in the offensive line position. I think there are some things we had to work through there. Obviously, a little rusty in certain areas and execution-wise. So, extremely frustrated, but I also understand why we play the games. You've got to take the good with the bad. You've got to take the learning moments for what they are. We've got one week to get ready for Michigan State, then we get a bye week on the back end of that. So I think we can wholeheartedly invest in this.'

'I think we'll continue to make some modifications, some tweaks on defense, but for us right now, just to stay healthy. I don't know what Ca'Lil's story is other than it's pretty significant. I don't know exactly what it is, but I know it's very significant and obviously devastating for him.'

'The kid puts a lot into it, wears it on his sleeve, a really, really good competitor. You know, last night, even as we were getting ready for this, you share these little moments with your players that only you get to share, right? And I had a little moment last night with Ca'Lil at dinner. Now I just see that face smiling at me, and it's a really weird little moment. It's almost kind of like it had to happen for the moment that we're in right now, because I know how much he invests in it. So, very, very frustrating.'

'Kaden Feagan, I know a lot of guys had questions about Kaden. He came out of the game fine last week. He went on Tuesday to catch a ball, basically routes versus air. Nobody around him, and he just came down, tried to do a somersault out of it, and he hit his head on the turf and knocked himself into concussion protocol. I think he will be back with us next week.'

'Jayshon Platt practiced with us a little bit Wednesday and a little bit Thursday. Just didn't feel he was good enough to be out there. So hopefully we get him back this week, if not coming out of the bye week. A couple other guys that got injured or banged up should start returning for us as well. Hopefully, we'll continue to get healthy."

On the defensive modifications:
"So what I kind of did was, on Sunday, I knew the situation. Going back before the day happened, if anything wasn't ever where Bobby couldn't call it, I would go to Coop naturally. I brought him in and made sure he was good with the plan.'

One thing I did, or two couple big things I did, is I took all of the DBs and brought them into one meeting room. I kind of pointed Corey and Robby Hauk, actually, as the point people in that DB room and had them start meeting collectively together.'

'Also, in the linebacker room, because Coop was going to be a play caller, I wanted him to be able to float into all three rooms. Took that linebacker room and combined that into one group, so Archie and Ellerbrock took that room over and had all three linebackers together meeting for the first time. I thought there were some positives to that, but we'll continue to move forward with that.'

'Defensively, the defensive line room kind of stayed consistent with where we are. But I thought we really shrunk our menu down. Obviously, we had a couple big plays today. I think there was a communication error on that big play that we ended up getting a field goal out of. Mac thought we were playing the coverage that we weren't, and then that last big one there at the end, we were at a blitz and we checked out of it, but we didn't get the play over the top.'

'So, some finer-tuned details. But I saw this Purdue team put up a lot of points against UCLA a couple weeks ago. I think that quarterback is very talented, so I think we'll continue to make some strides and make better use of this week."

On what he's learned about the team to this point:
"Well, we've got three losses. I mean, the outside world is going to say what they say. But really, there were moments in all three of those games that I went through and showed clips on Friday night to our offense and defense. I chose clips defensively from the Duke game, right? One of those was a play where we were up 17-7 in that game, at a point where you felt like you could come out with that thing, and we lost that one, right?'

'You got a couple plays in the Ohio State game where we start the first play of the fourth quarter, and it's a two-score game. We got a third-and-two at that point on the 18-yard line. Special teams, I showed the execution of our punter Lars, who had a big one last week at Ohio State. Showed Ethan hitting a 44-yarder and showed some kickoff coverage.'

'And just, like, we do enough good things that you think we can win games, but we do enough things that negatively take us out of victory. And we have to stop those things as coaches, or try to minimize what positions we put them in. I think if there's a group that worked harder in college football last week than my players and coaches, I'd like to know who it was. I mean, they invested a lot, a lot of really, really good work. I like the way they grew.'

'I appreciate the fans today. That was a really awesome environment to walk into. And I get it seven sellouts in 10 games, but they didn't start coming because we were losing. They started coming because we were winning. So I think it's appreciative of them, and I know it's never easy for anybody, and especially fans. You're trying to create great memories for them, and I promise you that this group will continue to grow and we'll continue to get better. But, you know, this league is tough. It's hard to win games, and you can't give them away for sure. And there are certain times where I think we've given some things away."

Ismael Kante

What's the locker room like right now? What do you guys have to do to move forward?
"No one likes losing. Nobody likes losing, especially losing here in our building in a trophy game. Obviously, the energy is down right now. We've got to come in tomorrow, watch the film, pick our heads back up, and go play Michigan State."

How do you guys get past this? How do you swallow a loss like this and move past the game?
"Love of the game. You can't keep your head down forever. You've got to pick your head up. There are a lot of people who come to watch us play, and you can't just keep letting them down. You pick your head up, hold your chest up, and play football. You've got to let the game go. The game might not always love you back, but you love the game. Win or lose, you've got to pick your head up and play ball."

Collin Dixon

The offense got off to a slow start. What wasn't connecting in that first half?
"I can't really speak on what went wrong without watching the film. I think I'll have a better idea tomorrow. Obviously, we wanted to get those guys back three-and-out and really wanted to get the offense six [points]. I've got to watch the film to get a better understanding."

What do you do to move on and change things moving forward?
"Watch the film, see what we did well and what we didn't do well, and build off the things we did well. Then, make sure everyone sticks together. It's easy when you lose two in a row for everyone to start pointing fingers. You really have to look at yourself internally and figure out what you can do better to help the team. I think that's the mindset we all need to have."